Administration

Just received this email, forwarded to my by my husband who got it from the American Family Association website. The AFA is a bit over the top for my personal taste, but they are a Christian activist organization constantly petitioning and lobbying for what they believe to be “traditional family values.” Go on and visit their website for more on them. That’s not what this post is about. It’s about a man named Brad O’Leary, a book he’s written called “The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama’s War on American Values,” and an online test he has made available as a voting aid called “The Barack Obama Test.

While the author clearly states he wrote the book and the test for his daughters and granddaughters – all voting age, and all of whom claimed they would vote for Obama because he “is good looking and an eloquent speaker,” and while his position is clearly in opposition to Obama’s, the test seems relatively straight-up. There are 48 multiple choice questions. They are written in a way that often belies the personal beliefs of the author, but they are still straight questions that represent the issues. You get to choose whether you agree or oppose the issue and are free to ignore the rhetoric. You receive 1 point for every answer that agrees with Obama and lose 1 for every one that opposes. The instructions are to consider whether or not to vote for Obama based on whether you receive a positive score or a negative one.

When you’re finished with the test, you are taken to a results page that not only reports your score, but shows how your answers compare to Obama’s position as well as how it measures up to “All Americans” (Source: Associated Television News / Zogby America Poll of 1, 005 likely voters conducted 7/9/08 through 7/14/08. Margin of Error +/- 3.2 percentage points).

At the very least, it is an interesting exercise and is an excellent tool to get Americans thinking about the actual issues rather than how they feel about the candidates themselves. I’ve put a little button in my left column that leads to this test so it will be easy to find between now and election day. Whatever your position, I urge you to please vote. Please.

Numbers 24: 5 “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel! 6 Like valleys that stretch out, Like gardens by the riverside, Like aloes planted by the Lord, Like cedars beside the waters. 7 He shall pour water from his buckets, And his seed shall be in many waters. “His king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted. 8 “God brings him out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox; He shall consume the nations, his enemies; He shall break their bones And pierce them with his arrows. 9 ‘He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’ “Blessed is he who blesses you, And cursed is he who curses you.”